[thelist] RE: Does web design have a future in 'high wage'co untries? (wasQuestion])

[Diane Soini]

On Monday, July 26, 2004, at 04:09 AM, thelist-request at lists.evolt.org 
wrote:
>
> Based in one of those "poor countries," South Africa, I can only 
> assume that
> I am included in the "foreigner" category.  Due to foreign exchange 
> rates,
> yes it does allow us to create and develop web sites for US$5 to US$25 
> per
> hour.
>
> How this makes us in any way inferior I don't know.

I, for one, do not believe for a minute that people anywhere else are 
inferior. That is part of what makes this "new world" so scary.

>  Your hourly rates are a weeks
> wages to us "foreigners" in "poor countries"

Exactly. That is the exact problem. You see, while companies can 
purchase the cheapest labor they can find from anywhere in the world, I 
still have to rent an apartment in my country, and I still have to 
purchase my fresh produce here and they would like to prohibit me from 
purchasing my medications from anywhere but here, etc. $5 an hour would 
be just fine if $5 an hour could afford me more than a cardboard box in 
a canyon and tortillas for breakfast.

The problem for me isn't that others can do the job better or cheaper 
than me, or that my standard of living deserves to be higher than 
others'. The problem is that while companies can purchase labor 
anywhere in the world, I cannot purchase all my daily life necessities 
from anywhere in the world at any price I would like. And efforts to do 
that, such as when Americans want to buy drugs from Canada, are met 
with giant corporations trying to get laws passed against it.

I am tethered to my place on the globe, wherever that may be. And I 
think I am beginning to see that unless it is a job that can be done in 
person, it makes little sense to pursue it as an occupation. Perhaps 
South Africa, India, China or wherever are cheap today, but that will 
not always be the case. Will web design remain an occupation done in 
person? Perhaps, but it is not entirely certain. It may be better to 
pursue setting up the hardware than creating the software.

Diane

***
Don't be afraid to try something new. An amateur built the ark. 
Professionals built the Titanic. -unknown